I thought perhaps there might be at least one of my ten lovely readers who would be interested in this 2 1/2 minute, slightly mesmerizing time lapse video of me coloring a Rabbits strip. The strip is set to run next month so if you can read it it's also a sneak preview of sorts. I did it in Photoshop and if you're the sort of techie person who likes full disclosure, the video starts with me having already scanned the strip at 600 DPI, adjusted the threshold to 140 and duplicated the layers so I have one for coloring and one on top of it that has just the black with the rest transparent. There's more on my process here and here. The music was just something that I had handy and used without permission! It's by the very wonderful People Like Us and Ergo Phizmiz. The strip took about 40 minutes to color in real time.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Halloween has come and gone but if for any reason you're looking for a wholesome vintage rabbit costume pattern look no further, for the fine folks over at Agence Eureka have posted one (along with a penguin and a "coq"). I especially like the way you can operate the ears with strings.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Around this time of year I usually get inundated by numerous requests to do holiday cards. I always try to steer away from the "traditional" images while still trying to capture the spirit of the season. Snow is a good fallback. He's an image I did for the Graphic Artists Guild of which I am a proud member.

Friday, December 10, 2010

The strip I drew for tomorrow (or today depending on which time zone you're in) was originally drawn thus:

However the powers that be deemed giraffe genitalia, covered or otherwise, to be just too dang racy and thus I had to swap in the wordplay panel you see below (which you can click to enlarge to see my hopelessly erratic inking details).

To be honest it's not a great joke. Sometimes a forced change like this can actually improve a strip. It took me ages to find animal names that rhyme with things you put around your neck. The only other one I came up with was a feather boa for a boa constrictor but that's just silly.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

During a wonderful conversation last night with the legendary and amazing Trina Robbins, she pointed out that Lee Harvey Oswald, the infamous (and often debated) assassinator of John F. Kennedy, had two rabbits in his name. Harvey is the invisible six-foot, three-and-one-half-inch tall rabbit from the classic Jimmy Stewart movie and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit was the very first Disney character. I rushed home to investigate this on the Internets and lo and behold if there isn't also a rabbit called Lee. I'm not familiar with Lee, the Rabbit with Epilepsy but he seems like a nice enough guy.

Friday, December 3, 2010

This is a vintage Dilbert strip from 1991. This rabbit was so angry it made someone eat a bug. Scott Adams may not be the most talented artist but he is really able to capture an expression. He's also very good at clenched fists.